Al-Qaeda Iraq leader threatens attacks on US

Baghdad: The top leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, on Monday announced in an audio message to formulate new policy against the United States and their rivals in Iraq.

According to China’s Xinhua state news agency, the terror leader announced a new plan to free the group’s jailed members and to assault the country’s judges and investigators.

“We are setting off a new stage of our struggle, with the launch of a plan named ‘breaking the walls,'” said the audio message purportedly from Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the top leader of the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq.

Mr. al-Baghdadi said the priority of his plan is to free the ” Muslim prisoners, as well as chase and eliminate the judges and investigators and their guards.”

He also urged the Sunni tribal leaders to send their men to join al Qaeda, who are returning to their previous strongholds. The militants fled their strongholds after some former anti-U.S. Sunni insurgent groups turned against them due to their indiscriminate killings of both Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities.

“On the occasion of the return of the Islamic State to the regions that we had evacuated from, I urge you to send your sons to join the mujahideen [holy warriors] to defend your religion and honor,” Mr. al-Baghdadi said.

He also threatened the U.S. by saying “you will see them [al Qaeda militants] at the heart of your country with God’s willing, since our war against you has just started.”